Ensuring Success for All Children in a StandardsBased Climate CRIEI Panel 2004 February 27th 8:00 am

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Ensuring Success for All Children in a
Standards-Based ClimateCRIEI Panel
2004February 27th 800 am 1000 amMission
B 

• Kristie Pretti-Frontczak, Kent State University
• (kprettif_at_kent.edu)
• Jennifer Grisham-Brown, University of Kentucky
• (jgleat00_at_pop.uky.edu)
• Elena Bodrova, McREL
• (ebodrova_at_mcrel.org)

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Session Purpose

• To share current research and applied projects
  examining the impact, influence, and practices
  associated with early childhood standards

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How We Got Here Standards-based Approach in K-12

• According to the data collected by the Education
  Commission of States, states that have focused
  on aligning various components of their education
  system with standards have shown improvement in
  student achievement and school quality
• A longitudinal study of at-risk children in Title
  1 schools found that Students' initial reading
  scores tended to be higher in classrooms where
  teachers reported they were aware of, and
  implementing, policies of standards-based
  reform.

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How We Got Here Early Learning Standards

• NAEYC and NAECS/SDE position statement on Early
  Learning Standards
• Child outcome standards are incorporated in the
  NAEYC and NAECS/SDE position statement on
  assessment, instruction, and program evaluation
  as well as in the new NAEYC accreditation
  guidelines
• State efforts to set standards for
  pre-kindergarten students (see www.nieer.org)

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Terminology

• Program Standards describe the resources,
  activities, and instruction programs offer to
  help children learn. Program standards
  incorporate both
• Classroom Standards identify classroom
  characteristics such as the maximum number of
  children in a classroom the allowable ratio of
  adults to children and the materials and
  supports available to children and families.
• Teaching and Curriculum Standards are sometimes
  described as opportunities to learn (e.g.,
  children are exposed to various types of
  age-appropriate literature or educational
  experiences will ensure that children print or
  copy their first name) or activities (e.g.,
  children listen to traditional tales). While
  program standards may influence what teachers do,
  they are generally intended to guide
  administrators.

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Terminology Continued

• Child Outcome Standards describe the knowledge
  and skills children should acquire by the end of
  the year. They can also extend beyond knowledge
  and skills, describing the kinds of habits,
  attitudes, and dispositions students are expected
  to develop as a result of classroom experiences
• For example, understands basic concepts of
  numbers and operations is a common math
  standard.

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Terminology Continued

• Standards are often broken down into more
  specific benchmarks that can be demonstrated and
  measured.
• Understands that numbers represent the quantity
  of objects is a benchmark that clarifies the
  intention of the standard.

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Linkage Across Kentuckys Early Childhood
Standards
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KY Birth to Three Standards - Domains Covered

• Communication
• Cognitive
• Social/Emotional
• Motor
• Creative Expression

Example Communication Birth to Three Years
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KY Three and Four Year Old Standards - Content
Areas

• Arts and Humanities
• English/Language Arts (Early Literacy)
• Health Education (health/mental wellness)
• Mathematics
• Science
• Physical Education (gross and fine motor skills)
• Social Studies

Example Language Arts Three and Four Year Olds
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Current Projects

• Potential role of beliefs on subsequent practices
• Effects of a linked assessment and curriculum
  planning system on childrens progress toward the
  indicators from the Head Start Outcomes Framework
  
• Database of states pre-k standards
• Framework for early math and science instruction

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Studies on Beliefs

• Beliefs influence practice
• Beliefs are influenced by training, policy,
  social climate
• Evidence of matches and mismatches between
  beliefs and practices

Kristie Pretti-Frontczak, Ph.D. Kent State
University Kurt Kowalski, Ph.D. California State
University San Bernardino Rhonda Douglas Brown,
Ph.D. University of Cincinnati
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Procedures/Measure

• Paper and pencil survey distributed to preschool
  programs in Ohio, USA.
• Survey composed of two sections
• An open-ended question section consisting of 2
  questions about preschool teachers beliefs
• A Likert scale section where teachers rated the
  importance of 54 early childhood skills and
  abilities

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Open-Ended Questions

• As children grow and develop, they change in many
  ways. Describe below the important changes that
  you think occur in children during the preschool
  years. Try to be as specific as possible.
• List below the things that you try to teach to
  the children in your classroom. Be as specific as
  possible.

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Scales

• Represented 3 key domains of early functioning
  Social-Emotional, Language and Literacy, and
  Early Math.
• Each of the scales was comprised of
• 8 items adapted from the preschool scales of the
  MAPS observational assessment instrument (Bergan,
  Sladeczek, Schwarz, Smith, 1991)
• 5 items representing other developmentally
  appropriate (DAP) indicators based on established
  standards for early childhood programs (Bredekamp
  Coople, 1997)
• 5 distracter items to ensure that teachers
  evaluated each item on a case-by-case basis

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Participants

• Preschool teachers from 80 Head Start, Preschool
  Special Education, and Public School Preschool
  center-based programs (total of 586 teachers)
• 372 HS teachers
• 146 PSPED teachers
• 68 PSP teachers
• Two subsets of data resulted
• Usable data for 356 teachers responses to the
  open-ended questions
• Usable data for 470 teachers responses to the
  rating scales

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Development of Indicators

• Content analysis of teacher responses to Question
  1 and Question 2
• Resulted in an exhaustive list of 113 codes,
  comprised of both 22 broad developmental response
  indicators and 91 discrete indicators
• Examples of broad response indicators included
  fine motor skills, gross motor skills, self-help,
  and creativity and imagination.
• Examples of discrete response indicators included
  pencil skills, cleaning up after self, adaptation
  to routines and schedules, learning rules, and
  dramatic play.

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Results Table 1
Top Five Frequency and Percentage of Responses
Provided by 10 or More of Participants Regarding
the Important Developmental Changes that Occur
During the Preschool Years (N346)
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Results Table 2
Top Five Frequency and Percentage of Responses
Provided by 10 or More of the Participants
Regarding the Skills and Abilities They Try to
Teach in Their Classroom (N346)
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Comparison of Teachers Beliefs and State
Standards

• Hypothesize that incorporation of state standards
  will require an alignment with teacher belief
• Findings
• Degree of alignment (HO)
• ELCS focus on academic content
• Top teacher beliefs focus on social skills
  (results from rating scales)
• Hypothesize that adoption of state standards will
  influence practice (study on assessment)
• Findings
• State mandated use of an assessment lead to
  changes in teacher beliefs

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Teachers Ratings (Kowalski, Pretti-Frontczak,
Johnson, 2001).
1 not at all important, 2 somewhat important,
3 important, 4 very important, 5 critically
important
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Assessment Study Participants (Kowalski, Douglas
Brown, Pretti-Frontczak, in review)

• Preschool teachers from Ohio
• 63 Head Start, Preschool Special Education, and
  Public School Preschool center-based programs
  (total of 514 teachers)
• 156 users of the MAPS
• 358 non-users

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Results
Teachers mean ratings of the importance of the
MAPS items by group and scale
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Results
Teachers mean ratings of the importance of the
DAP items by group and scale.
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Results
Teachers mean ratings of the importance of the
MAPS Language/Literacy items by time and group.
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Results
Teachers mean ratings of the importance of the
MAPS Early Math items by time and group.
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Supporting Literacy Learning in Young
ChildrenLINKing Authentic Assessment,
Curriculum, and Child Outcomes

• Rena Hallam, Ph.D.
• Jennifer Grisham-Brown, Ed.D.
• Department of Family Studies
• University of Kentucky

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Collaborative Partners

• Department of Family Studies, University of
  Kentucky
• Community Action Council for Lexington-Fayette,
  Bourbon, Harrison, and Nicholas Counties

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Project Purpose

• To build the capacity of Head Start programs to
  link child assessment and curriculum to support
  positive outcomes for preschool children
• Focus on mandated Head Start Child Outcomes
• Concepts of Print
• Oral Language
• Phonological Awareness
• Concepts of Number

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Rationale for Project LINK

• Dissatisfaction with standardized assessment for
  preschoolers
• Disconnect between current assessment practices
  and Head Start Child Outcomes
• Recommended practices for assessment of young
  children

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LINKed System Approach
Activity- Based Assessments
Individual Learning Goals/Plans
Group Curriculum Plans
Ongoing Data Collection (Portfolio)
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Activity-Based Protocols

• Identify assessment activities
• Engaging/high interest activities
• Can assess an array of skills across domains
• Part of school schedule
• Determine skills
• Identify outcomes for program (Head Start
  Outcomes Framework)
• Identify developmental continuum that evidences
  Head Start Outcomes (AEPS Bricker, 2002)
• Identify materials
• Developmentally/age appropriate
• Relate to skills to be assessed
• Relate to assessment activities

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Alignment of AEPS Domains to Head Start Outcomes
Domains
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Assessment Activities

• Play dough
• Snack
• Outdoor
• Manipulatives
• Book-Reading
• Book About Me

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Assessment Activities Protocol Example
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Individualized Child Plans

• Linked to Activity-Based Assessments
• Include family goals and input
• Focus on embedding skills into typical activities
  and routines
• Plan for ongoing documentation and collection of
  evidence related to individual child goals

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Example of Individualized Child Plan
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Curriculum Planning Form

• Integrating individualized plans
• Use of curriculum webbing to support integration
  of learning areas
• Opportunity to plan for ongoing data collection
  connected specifically to planned activities

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Curriculum Planning Form
SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL / APPROACHES TO
LEARNING MENTAL HEALTH MULTICULTURAL
LANGUAGE/LITERACY key skills - understanding
and applying concepts of print alphabet -
using language to communicate - demonstrating
phonological awareness
CURRENT THEME
MATH SCIENCE key skills - using numbers
counting to solve problems and determine
quantity
HEALTH key skills
CREATIVE ARTS key skills
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Ongoing Monitoring Portfolio Development

• Based on individualized goals
• Use of Work Sampling System (Meisels,
  Dichtelmiller, Jablon, Marsden, 2001)
• Evidence that documents individuals child
  progress in target area over time

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Research Questions

• Does the Project LINK assessment model accurately
  assess and monitor childrens abilities?
• What are effective supports and strategies needed
  by Head Start teacher in implementing an
  authentic assessment model?
• Does linking an authentic assessment model to the
  Child Outcomes Framework improve program quality?
• Does linking an authentic assessment model to the
  Child Outcomes Framework prepare children for
  school?

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Evaluation Process

• Two-year intervention process
• Randomly selected sites 9 intervention
  classrooms 9 control classrooms 8 pilot
  classrooms
• Data collection
• ECERS-R (Harms, Clifford, Cryer, 1998 ) and
  ELLCO (Smith Dickinson, 2002)
• Quality of individual child plans and lesson
  plans
• Child outcome data
• Progress toward mandated indicators
• FACES Measures

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Classroom Quality - Baseline
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Classroom Quality - Baseline
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Child Outcome Data - Baseline
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Discussion

• Existing gaps in the research and/or practice
• Issues in conducting research on standards and
  young children, particularly the impact on
  children with disabilities
• Ideas for future studies and/or suggestions for
  future directions
• Additional examples/illustrations of projects
  that are currently under way and/or materials
  that are being developed

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AEPS and ELCS

• Four matrixes have been created
• The matrixes illustrate alignment between AEPS
  items and ELCS organizers/strands
• Alignment should not be one-to-one
• Need to monitor all childrens progress toward
  the ELCS
• May need to augment the AEPS with other data
  collection methods

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References

• Bergan, J. R., Sladeczek, I. E., Schwarz, R. D.,
  Smith, A. N. (1991). Effects of a measurement
  and planning system on kindergarteners cognitive
  development and educational programming. American
  Educational Research Journal, 28 (3), 683-714.
• Bredekamp, S., Coople, C. (Eds.). (1997).
  Developmentally appropriate practice in early
  childhood programs (Rev. ed.). Washington, DC
  National Association for the Education of Young
  Children.
• Harms, T., Clifford, R. M., Cryer, D. (1998).
  Early childhood environmental rating scale
  Revised edition. New York, NY Teachers College
  Press.
• Kowalski, K., Douglas Brown, R,
  Pretti-Frontczak, K. L. (in review). The Effects
  of using formal assessment on preschool teachers
  beliefs about the importance of various
  developmental skills and abilities. Contemporary
  Educational Psychology.
• Kowalski, K., Pretti-Frontczak, K. L., Johnson,
  L. (2001). Preschool teachers' beliefs concerning
  the importance of various developmental skills
  and abilities. Journal of Research in Childhood
  Education, 16, 5-14.
• Smith, M. W. Dickinson, D. K. (2002). Early
  language and literacy classroom observation
  Research Edition. Baltimore, MD Paul Brookes
  Publishing Company.